Scene
The paintings show fragments of events, including arrest photographs, prison interiors, and coffined bodies. They focus on the imprisonment and deaths of Red Army Faction members in Stammheim Prison.
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October 18, 1977 (cycle)
Gerhard Richter
1988
Figures
The cycle depicts core members of the Red Army Faction, including Gudrun Ensslin, Andreas Baader, Jan-Carl Raspe, and Ulrike Meinhof. Their images are based on police and press photographs.
Symbolism
The grey tones and blurred imagery suggest ambiguity and mourning. Some works use overpainting to act as a shroud, implying a blanket of forgetting over the scene.
Craft
Richter deliberately blurs the contours by dragging and feathering wet paint. This technique undermines photographic clarity and questions the reliability of visual evidence.
Impact
The cycle is considered a landmark in politically engaged art after 1945. It is widely studied for how it confronts the memory of terrorism and the limits of representing history.
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Craft
